Spitfire Surprise is a photograph by Martin At Gemini Pictures which was uploaded on March 4th, 2016.
Spitfire Surprise
Spitfire Mark IX MH434 is one of the most famous of today's flying Spitfires and is a combat veteran of WW2 and post war conflicts. ... more
Title
Spitfire Surprise
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Martin At Gemini Pictures
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Spitfire Mark IX MH434 is one of the most famous of today's flying Spitfires and is a combat veteran of WW2 and post war conflicts.
On this day, 19th July 1996, the pilot Ray Hanna decided to scare a TV documentary crew to death by taking off, hugging the ground, and pouncing on the crew while they recorded a link for a documentary on the 60th Anniversary of the Spitfire for American TV. I had a camera with me on the day - I was producing the TV crew - and looking for the aircraft through my lens it suddenly appeared and I clicked the shutter before dropping to the ground. The video of the moment is on Youtube with copious expletives (https://youtu.be/4iOoiEbtf2w) if you want to see what happened .
Ray Hanna was one of the best warbird pilots of his generation, formerly in the Royal Airforce he had been leader of the aerobatic display team the Red Arrows and once he became a pilot of classic aircraft he and MH434 were the go to team for numerous Hollywood film directors.
When it came to low flying stunts Ray was the best there was and the secret was decades of experience with the aircraft, faultless expertise and meticulous preparation. As for my photo, that was luck...
�Martin Stockham 1996 and 2016
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March 4th, 2016
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